The U.S. Federal Reserve appears to be paying more attention to how its policies affect black Americans. This is a wise move, because blacks stand to gain a lot more than others from the Fed’s efforts to support economic growth.
The minutes of the Fed’s July policy-making meeting noted that officials had discussed unemployment rates and other measures of labor utilization for specific groups, including black Americans. It’s a subject worthy of attention: The black unemployment rate has been about 1.9 times the overall rate for more than 40 years. Here’s how that looks:
